US President Donald Trump, who said he loved WikiLeaks during his election campaign, tried to distance himself from the arrest of Julian Assange, which was carried out by Britain on the request of the US.

Speaking to journalists in the Oval Office on Thursday, hours after the arrest of Assange in London, Trump said:

"I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It’s not my thing."

Trump was far less reluctant to speak about the transparency site in 2016, when it played a major role in the US presidential election after it published a number of documents leaked from the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Then-candidate Trump called the work of the site “amazing” and said he “loved” what it was being doing.